Porsche doubles workforce to launch the Macan

Posted on: Mar 16, 2013 - 2:02pm IST

Porsche’s desire to risk its future when it comes to planning new products grows after every passing year. We have seen the Stuttgart based giant launch the Cayenne and Panamera, which were considered to be brand dilution exercises, turn out as smash hits.

Now it is time for another cliffhanging operation with the baby Cayenne – the Macan – which will launch later this year.

Porsche’s baby wonder Macan, Indonesian word for Tiger, is going to be the cheapest Porsche.

The automaker has set an ambitious target of selling 200,000 Porsches every year and the Macan is very vital to achieve this ambitious target. The Stuttgart based company plans to sell at least 75,000 units of Macan annually.

To achieve this herculean task, Porsche plans to hire 1,000 full-time blue collar workers and 400 engineers in order to start production of the Macan at the Leipzig facility. The automaker already has 1,150 employees at the Leipzig factory. So essentially, the company will nearly double its workforce over the next few months. The automaker has already received 16,500 applications for recruitment.

The company has also invested about €500 million in the Leipzig plant to build a state-of-the-art body shop and a paint shop for the Macan.

The company plans to open 250 new dealerships in the next 5 years. Currently, it has 750 dealerships worldwide and will invest €200 million for this 33% increase in the sales network.

Quattroruote reports that the Macan crossover has completed its testing phase and is all set to enter production. The production model will be revealed at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show in September with deliveries beginning soon after.

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